GUNUNG GAP & ULU SEMANGKUK

It's the first time, I joined a hiking group in their hiking activity and I was following them to Gunung Gap & Ulu Semangkuk. The hiking itself took around 4 hours return climbing. However, their planning included camping at Kelah Sancturay at Pretak. There were 15 of us.

We left KL at 9pm, an hour late from the original plan of 8pm. It's because of one person, we had to wait for an hour. That's typical when you're in a group.

The camping place is around 73km from KL. It's midway from Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB) to Bukit Fraser. We reached there past midnight. In the middle of the night, we went up the hill across the road to the camp site, going through a small path in the jungle. When we went back to the car the next morning, we realised we took a wrong way (more difficult!), in fact there was a gravel road connecting the main road and the campsite.

After putting up the tent, I didn't lose any chance, I slept straight away, without taking bath. What to do, it's way past midnight and my sleeping time, I was tired! And after sleeping for about half hour, my tent mates came back and joined me in the tent. From then on, I couldn't sleep at all until morning.

After suboh prayers (there is surau and toilet in the sanctuary area), I was hungry and started nibbling some snacks while the others were still snoring!!

A little bit info on Santuari Kelah Sg. Chiling, it was established in 2006 (it's still new!) as a sanctuary for a fish species called Kelah. That species was almost extinct when they started gazetting the area as sanctuary. Since then, the kelah population has grown again. Nobody is allowed to fish in which ever way in the sanctuary area. You'd be fined for RM10,000! There's waterfall within the sanctuary area. The group stayed another night to go there!

After a proper breakfast in KKB town, we went straight ahead to the starting point of the hiking trip. It was 10.55am when we started ascending. The starting point is located near Gap Rest house.

The first 10 minutes of climbing, we went through bamboo jungle! And a hiking friend, who did a knee surgery 4 months ago, had to quit and returned to the base! After going through the bamboo jungle, the surroundings looked familiar with vertical slopes in tropical rain forest. It took almost one hour to reach the first peak, Gunung Gap! The summit indicator was gone! We took a break for about 40 minutes while waiting for the rest of the group.

From there we continued our journey for the second peak. There were two treks from Gunung Gap and we took the one on the left. Just like the treks to Gap, the treks to Gunung Ulu Semangkuk are steep too with occasional flat areas! Midway through, the weather was cooler and it was so refreshing! It feels like we were at Fraser's Hill itself! And it rained too!

We kept our electronic devices, camera and handphone in plastic bags and continued in the rain until we reached the peak of Ulu Semangkuk. The rain added the beauty of the area as it became very misty and looked mysterious, like those scenes from Lord of The Rings! We took almost 2 hours to reach the peak!

They cooked instant noodle for lunch. And the noodle was the cause of my stomach upset later on! We stayed there until almost 3pm. The rain stopped minutes before we started descending. Due to to the rain, we didn't have that many photos taken at the peak! Talking about the peak, nothing much to see as it was surrounded by tall trees!

On the way down, passing Gunung Gap, my stomach upset started kicking in and I really had to rush down as I didn't want to do my 'big business' in the jungle! In just 1.5 hours we reached back the starting point. As for me, I went straight to the nearby toilet!

To make the story short (dah banyak sangat bercerita!), after taking medicines, I left for the camp site and waited for more than 1 hour for the rest to come back. Had to leave the group as I had promised my family I'd be home on Saturday night itself. I reached home sweet home around 11pm.

All in all, it was my first experience joining a big group and I enjoyed it. Had to be flexible with my timing and had to take some of the lawak bodoh of the group too! I guess, if it's for hiking trip, would not join them again. I reserve my comments!!